Literary notes about Callosity (AI summary)
The term "callosity" is employed in literature to denote a distinctly thickened, hardened area, whether on an animal’s body or in a more abstract, metaphorical sense. In zoological and anatomical descriptions, it characterizes physical adaptations—such as the complete covering of an umbilicus by a large callosity on mollusk shells [1, 2], the development of hardened skin due to chronic friction or pressure [3, 4, 5], and even specialized structures on animal limbs [6, 7]. In contrast, authors also extend the word’s use to the realm of human experience by metaphorically portraying emotional or moral insensitivities, such as a callosity of heart that suggests a numbing of feeling [8, 9, 10].
- Species with the umbilicus entirely covered over by a large callosity; the spire papillose, and the operculum horny.
— from A Manual of Conchology According to the System Laid Down by Lamarck, with the Late Improvements by De Blainville. Exemplified and Arranged for the Use of Students. by Thomas Wyatt - It has a shelly operculum, and the umbilicus is neatly closed by a pure white, shining callosity.
— from The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide A Guide to the Study of the Seaweeds and the Lower Animal Life Found Between Tide-marks by Augusta Foote Arnold - Besides causing the animal considerable pain, chafing, if long continued, leads to the formation of a callosity.
— from Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by W. H. (William Heyser) Harbaugh - On the knee is a callosity, or round patch of bare hardened skin.
— from Unexplored Spain by Abel Chapman - The governor struck his toe against it, on which toe a painful callosity existed.
— from Antony Waymouth; Or, The Gentlemen Adventurers by William Henry Giles Kingston - A large callosity forms on the shoulders of the regular Unyamwesi porters, from the heavy weights laid on them.
— from The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 by David Livingstone - On the hind feet, at the upper end of the metatarsus, there is a callosity three inches long and three quarters of an inch broad, destitute of hair.
— from Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt - The repetition of religious duties, without the feeling or spirit of religion, produces an incurable callosity of heart.
— from Melmoth the Wanderer, Vol. 1 (of 4) by Charles Robert Maturin - His moral sense was hardened to a still deadlier callosity, until he developed into the execration of mankind.
— from Darkness and Dawn; Or, Scenes in the Days of Nero. An Historic Tale by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar - To a youth afflicted with the callosity of sentiment, this quaint and pregnant saying appeared merely base.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 09 by Robert Louis Stevenson
